Another chapter! A lot shorter than any previous chapter, but I feel like it's a necessary one. I really just wanted to show the true side of Yuka, but I didn't feel like it needed to drag on in any way. The next chapter is more fights, more Haruka/Michiru, and maybe a confrontation with Yuka.

Thank you for reading! Enjoy!

The Only Promise You Ever Made

Chapter 11-Fallen

She opened her eyes, but the bright light caused her to groan and cover her eyes with her forearm. She rolled to her right side, quickly realizing that she wasn't on a bed like she first thought. Whatever she was laying on was hard and firm. She finally removed her arm and opened her eyes to white light surrounding her endlessly.

"Where am I?"

"Where do you think you are?"

The voice made her turn around quickly, and she shuffled to her feet. A man stood there, clear blue eyes and blonde hair with his hands held behind his back. She racked her brain to come up with a name, or a place where she'd seen him, but there was nothing. She didn't recognize him whatsoever. "Have we met before?"

He smiled. "This is our first time meeting, but I've been expecting you."

She took a few steps closer to him. "Expecting me? I don't even know who you are or where I am. How have you been expecting me?"

His smile was gone, and instead a melancholy visage took its place. "I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you're dead, Yuka."

Yuka heard him clearly, but she wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. She looked around some more, still seeing nothing but white surrounding them. She looked down at her body, and there was a hole in her shirt over her chest. She inserted her fingers through it, feeling a scar on her chest. There was dry blood on her shirt, but she wasn't in any sort of pain. She glanced back up at the man, finally noticing that there were wings on his back.

"Are you some sort of angel?"

He nodded. "I'm your mentor, actually. My name is Caleb."

"I…I don't understand though. I was at home…I was in bed sleeping. How am I dead?"

"Close your eyes," he answered.

When she did, images flashed in her head. There was no denying that she was home, and she was in bed. But then there was a man who she didn't recognize. Before she knew it, she was fighting him, struggling to get the upper hand she desperately needed, but she lost. Multiple stabs to the body and a gunshot wound could make a person lose in any confrontation. She opened her eyes and looked down to inspect her body. Scars adorned her arms, and she lifted up her shirt to find more on her torso. Yuka took a deep breath, trying to understand what was going on, trying to accept the fact that she was dead.

She shook her head. "Not like this," she began, walking closer to Caleb. "I…I was going to see her tomorrow. I was going to talk to her, and things were going to change for the better."

Caleb simply looked at her with an apologetic face. "I'm not sure what to tell you, Yuka." His head jerked to the right, and his cheek stung. He took a step back, swallowing the blood in his mouth and looking back at angered eyes. "Your anger is misplaced. You can hit me all you want, but it won't do you any good."

Yuka clenched and unclenched her fists, her breathing coming out through gritted teeth. "You don't understand. We were going to be happy!" She charged at him, bringing her arm forward to strike again, but he dodged it easily, using her momentum against her to throw her to the ground. She growled in frustration before getting back to her feet.

"Please, Yuka, this is only making things worse. You need to calm down."

"Are you serious right now? I'm dead, and you're telling me to calm down?"

Caleb scratched the back of his head. "Look, I know you're upset. I was upset when I first got here, too. But your anger is a waste of energy and time. As difficult as it is, you need to accept this."

Yuka turned away from him, knowing it was the only way to prevent her from hitting him again. She rubbed her eyes, surprised to feel wetness on her fingers. She sighed, letting her hands fall to her side, and turning around to face Caleb again. "I don't belong here. I belong with Michiru." She hoped that saying this to him would give her another chance maybe, or something could be done to get her back to where she belonged. Even though she wasn't one to beg, it was the only thing she could think of to do right now.

He gave a sympathetic smile. "A lot of us belong somewhere else, Yuka." A folder appeared in his hands. "As much as I wish I could send you back, that's out of the question. One week has already passed since you were killed."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Does she even know I'm dead?"

"I'm afraid not."

Yuka's knees hit the ground, and she sat there feeling helpless. This wasn't supposed to happen. It wasn't supposed to end like this. Regardless of their fight and Michiru's words, they were in love and they were happy. She was going to fix things, but now…now she was dead? It felt surreal, like it was some sort of crazy dream.

"I'm afraid you're not dreaming."

She looked at Caleb. "Am I ever going to see her again?"

He held up the folder. "When you arrived here, I received this folder, which tells me everything about you from your lifestyle to your thoughts and actions…everything." He opened the folder, flipping through a few pages. "From what I've read here, you passed."

She frowned, her mouth hanging open slightly. She shook her head. "I don't understand. What did I pass?"

"You're going to be a guardian angel…something that not everybody gets the privilege to become. You're going to be allowed to protect one person." He held out his hand before she could answer. "I already know you're going to choose Michiru," he finished with a smile.

"So…I'll still be able to see her?" Caleb nodded. "Will she be able to see me?"

"I'm afraid not. The sole reason of a guardian angel is to protect, but not to interfere. You're going to make sure nothing happens to her, but only by using outside forces to keep her safe. You can't warn her, you can't try to change her mind or prevent her from doing anything."

"What happens if I break this rule?"

He sighed, unsure of whether her tone was some sort of foreshadowing. There was no way she could change so quickly, and he had yet to feel any sort of malicious intent radiating in her energy. Her face was excited, neutral, and her body language gave way to nothing vicious. Maybe he was just overanalyzing the way she said a few words. "If you break the rule, then you will lose this privilege, and there's a possibility you will become a fallen angel."

"I understand, Caleb. I'm not going to let that happen. I'm going to keep Michiru safe."

He nodded his head, noticing her body language change again into a protective stance, but her fists clenching worried him. There was something off about her, but he couldn't figure out what it was. But then he saw it. It was quick, simply a flash, and if he had blinked he would have definitely missed it, but he saw it. A blackness in her eyes that was there and then gone. He wanted to convince himself that he imagined it, but it was there. He hoped for Yuka's sake that it wasn't an indication of the future.

It wasn't long before Yuka earned her wings. She had kept Michiru from being involved in a car accident that could have been potentially fatal.

It was difficult for her to get used to the fact that Michiru couldn't see nor hear her. She found herself talking to Michiru as if she was still alive, wanting to hold a conversation as easily as it had been before. She also found herself constantly reaching out to touch her, but her hand simply went through Michiru, and the feeling that accompanied such attempts was still something she would never adjust to.

Caleb informed her of the rules as time went by, and she would scoff or roll her eyes at each one. For being a guardian angel, the rules didn't make any sense to her, and she was quick to challenge Caleb with each and every one. He kept giving her explanations about The Corp., and that this was how it always was, but she didn't care. She didn't understand how anybody could live like this without challenging something. She desperately wanted to find a loophole in these rules, a way to make it so Michiru could at least see her. If the rules weren't bothering her one day, it was the reality of not being able to be seen by Michiru that got to her.

It wasn't until she started to learn her power a year later that things finally got interesting for her. She encountered fallen angels, and constantly. She didn't feel sorry for any of them, and she didn't feel any remorse when she killed them. They were trying to harm Michiru, and she wasn't going to let anything of the sort happen. If she had to follow rules for the rest of eternity, at least she was able to vent her frustration and anger by killing fallen angels.

Caleb was quick to notice this. Her kills were ruthless, her motives nothing but out of anger and frustration. There was no remorse, no hesitation in using her powers to kill. She was good at it, and that worried him. Her power was fire, and she became extremely good at using it in a short amount of time. And then she learned another one within only a few months: electricity. It wasn't unheard of for a guardian angel to have multiple powers, he knew some who had four, but he had never seen an angel learn them within the span of a few weeks. A few more months passed, and she learned earth. It wasn't too long after that for Yuka to learn water. For some reason, she was never able to learn wind. Yuka tried and tried, but she couldn't master it in any way. It didn't bother her though, as she already learned plenty that gave her the strength to defend and protect.

As concerned as Caleb was at how rapidly she was learning these skills, he never once again saw the blackness in her eyes. He actually had almost forgotten it ever happened. But she was still killing without a thought, without reluctance and without remorse. It almost seemed like a game to her, like the more she killed then the stronger she became. She wanted her name to be known by the fallen angels. Yuka wanted to be feared.

Caleb wasn't sure what to do.

"What are you doing here, Yuka? I thought you would be with Michiru?"

Yuka didn't say anything. He walked towards her, her back facing him. Her wings were folded in, and she had her arms crossed. He could hear her whispering something under her breath, but he couldn't make out what it was. He touched her shoulder, and she jumped to the side. In an instant, a sword was in her hand and pressing against his neck. He didn't move, but he stared at her in disbelief. What had her on edge like this?

"Yuka…it's just me. You need to relax before The Corp. gets here."

Yuka blinked a few times, looking around her surroundings as if she had forgotten where she was. The sword disappeared, and she cleared her throat. "Sorry about that, Caleb. I just…," she trailed off, taking a few steps away from him.

He frowned, still noting the tense body language and confusion in her eyes. "What's bothering you?"

She didn't answer right away, instead staring at the ground in thought. She cleared her throat again, looking at her left hand and rubbing the ring on her finger. "She found somebody else, Caleb," she began, before taking off the ring. She let it fall to the ground. "Michiru found somebody else."

Caleb stood there, unsure of what to say. He could see the confusion in her body language, and he could hear it clearly in her voice. He figured it was a way for her to mask the anger, but he knew it was there just waiting to be released. Yuka made a fist, rubbing it with her other hand.

"You have every right to be hurt about this, Yuka," he began, but the look she gave him stopped him from continuing.

"Hurt? I'm more angry than hurt, Caleb. Michiru found somebody else…Haruka Tenoh to be exact."

Caleb didn't speak, knowing she wouldn't listen to anything he had to say in her current state of mind. He took a cautious step towards her. "Maybe you should stay here for a while…you know, give yourself some time to deal with this."

Yuka didn't respond. She turned her back to him, letting her wings expand to their full length. "I'm her guardian angel, Caleb. I'm supposed to protect her."

The way she said it sent chills down his back. There was something clearly wrong, and he couldn't let her leave when she was obviously upset like this. There was no telling what she was going to do as a way to deal with that anger. "Listen, Yuka…I really think you should stay here."

Yuka finally looked at Caleb, and he saw it again. There was no denying it this time. There was a flicker of black in her eyes and with her wings. Yuka smiled, but it didn't do anything to appease the situation. "I'm going to be fine, Caleb," she assured. "Everything is going to be okay."

Yuka was gone, and Caleb stood there in disbelief. As much as he didn't want to believe what he saw, it happened, and he knew it wasn't a good sign of what was to come. He needed to keep a close watch on Yuka from now on because if she did anything irrational, it was going to be within the next few months.

He sighed, rubbing his face out of frustration. "Anything but this…"

"How could you be so stupid?!"

Matthew took a step back, bringing up his hands. "What are you talking about? They're both safe."

Yuka pointed to Michiru being lifted onto a stretcher. "You could have gotten her killed!" She rushed at Matthew, grabbing him by his shirt and throwing him onto the ground. "You're a stupid excuse for an angel, you know that?" Lightning surrounded her fist, and she began punching him. He tried to defend himself, but he just recently received his wings, and didn't have any powers yet. She was a lot stronger than him, and regardless of the pain caused from the shocks going through his body, it wasn't anything compared to her eyes. He had never seen so much anger in another person. He had never felt such rage.

It wasn't long before Caleb arrived, and after resistance on her part, he was able to pull her off of Matthew. She fought against his hold some more, kicking and screaming at Matthew for being foolish. "You need to calm down, Yuka!" She was able to get out of his hold, much to his dismay, and she was a lot faster than he anticipated. She pressed her hand against his chest, an electrical shock throwing him back several yards. He landed on his back, his chest burning as he coughed up blood. She was at his side in an instant, but he was able to move out of the way before her blazing fist could connect with his face. He blinked and she was gone, and then he felt an arm wrap around his neck. A dagger went through his back, and then she disappeared again. He fell to his knees, coughing up blood and grabbing at his side. The dagger imbedded itself more into his back, and he only hoped a medic would arrive soon.

Matthew was still on the floor, not having the strength to get up and help Caleb. He was on his side, trying his best to keep his right eye open since the left was swollen. He spit out blood, groaning from the pain in his jaw that the action caused. Yuka was standing in front of him in the next moment, and he tried his best to get to his feet. She grabbed him, ignoring the arrival of The Corp., and threw him into the ground. The impact caused the ground to cave in, and she was quick to create a shield around the crater. Ever since she began learning her powers, she not only mastered offensive techniques, but made sure she learned anything that could give her a defensive edge. Her shields seemed to be the best out of anything she knew, and they were impenetrable, even by more experienced angels.

Yuka laughed when she heard the swords being deflected against the shield. She stared at Matthew. "They're not going to save you," she started, her eyes finally turning black and her wings doing the same. He grabbed at her arms, afraid at the change in her appearance.

"Yuka…what's wrong with you? Why are you doing this?"

"You could have killed her!" She let go with her right hand, a dagger appearing in her grip. "You need to understand that such carelessness is not tolerated."

Caleb had tried his best to break the shield, along with the angels from The Corp., but nothing was working. When he saw the dagger his efforts doubled, but it was still useless. Yuka stabbed Matthew in the chest, the pain of his screams more than Caleb could bear. Caleb stood there, helpless and in disbelief of what was unfolding in front of him. Matthew grabbed at Yuka's back, and then he was gone, his body dissolving into nothing.

Yuka's breathing was erratic, the energy coming from her completely dark. She stood up, and when he saw her black eyes he closed his own in grief. The shield was still present, but the other angels had stopped trying to break through as they understood there was no point anymore. Yuka reached her arm to touch her back, bringing her hand back to see blood on her fingers. She guessed that's where her betrayal mark was going to be.

Caleb opened his eyes and sadly stared into her black ones. "Why?"

Yuka grinned. "Why are you so surprised, Caleb?"

He shook his head. "I'm not surprised. I knew this was coming, but I thought I would have been able to stop it. I thought I could prevent you from turning."

"You can't prevent anything, Caleb. We can't interfere with humans, what makes you think we can interfere with each other?"

Caleb closed his eyes again, still unable to believe what was happening. She had turned so quickly, so easily. He did know it was going to happen eventually, but he thought he had more time. He thought that maybe if he spoke with her more, if he interacted with her more, that he could divert her state of mind and keep her from falling. He was foolish to ever believe that.

He looked back at her, his sadness replaced with nonchalance. "What now? You kill me, too?"

She tilted her head. "I don't have to kill you. I just have to make you forget."

Caleb's confusion was temporary, as the shield dissolved and Yuka was in front of him the next instant. He was too slow to defend himself, and the other angels were too far. The dagger slashed across his face, starting at his eyebrow and making its way diagonally down his face to his chin. His hands went to his face, and he felt how deep the wound was. He opened his good eye, and swallowed the blood trickling into his mouth, the taste of iron an annoyance. Yuka was restrained by The Corp., and Caleb walked to stand in front of her, ignoring his wound for the time being.

Yuka smiled, not at all bothered by what she knew was going to come. It bothered Caleb that she was being so casual about all of this, but then again, she was full of surprises. He roughly wiped away blood from his other eye so he could open it. "You do realize what's going to happen, right?"

"I welcome it actually, Caleb. I'm going to be a fallen angel, and I'll be able to do what I want without any rules or interference." Her smile grew wider. "I can't wait."

He shook his head. "What happened to you?" he whispered.

"I'd be more worried about what's going to happen to you, Caleb."

Caleb watched as Yuka's wings were cut off, and she was relinquished of her title as a guardian angel. She didn't scream, nor did she put up a fight. She accepted the hand she was being dealt, having been the dealer in all of it apparently. With one last glance at her battered and bloody form, she was released to the world of the fallen angels-the only place she was welcome. He was certain he was going to see her again, in her new role as a fallen angel, but he hoped it would be a while before that happened.

He touched his face, hissing at the pain, and concerned with how deep it was. A medic was at his side, inspecting the wound with a frown.

"What is it?"

"I don't know, sir, but I've never seen a wound like this one."

Caleb sighed, thinking back to Yuka's final words to him. "Just…just fix it up as best as possible."

The medic suddenly removed his hand from Caleb's face, and stared at him in shock. Caleb frowned. "What is it?"

The medic opened his mouth, but wasn't sure what to say. He finally cleared his throat. "The wound…it's gone."

"What do you mean gone?" Caleb touched his face, surprised to feel his face devoid of the wound and of blood. He didn't understand how that was possible, not having experienced anything like it before. The wound was deep and severe, and should at least have taken a few days to heal, with the scar remaining for years after. But he felt nothing, and he wasn't in any pain. He muttered something under his breath. The only thing he could think was that it was some sort of curse, and it scared him to think he didn't know what it entailed.

Haruka rushed into the room, having been told that Caleb was finally awake. He had been unconscious ever since he returned, and finally three weeks later he was coming to. She opened his door to find him sitting up in his bed, looking down at his hands in concentration.

"Caleb," she started, quickly noticing the scar across his face. It was the same one she saw before, but his nose wasn't bleeding this time. "How are you feeling?"

He stared at her. "I remember, Haruka. I remember everything."

Short, but I just wanted to explain how Yuka became a fallen angel. I didn't really think there needed to be a lot of explanation, but there needed to be something nonetheless before the next chapter.

Thank you for reading! I appreciate it. I'd really love to hear what you think of the story, so please comment and let me know.

Take care!

-Nightfall5029